WUW / sixthsense - a wearable gestural interface

Education Eye - Mapping InnovationsAbout Education Eye Futurelab's Education Eye brings you a wide range of exciting, relevant and useful innovations which are selected from the best of the web and updated daily. The Eye provides a way to discover, explore and share new ideas. It maps hundreds of the top educational websites, blogs, forums and practitioner case studies. With additional features like saving your own favourite innovations, Futurelab's favourites, customisable email digests, and a widget version, it is invaluable.

How To Create Your Own Self-Hypnosis AudioThis post shows you how to make your own self-hypnosis audio that you can later listen to to help improve motivation, habit change, and other aspects of self improvement. Materials needed Some kind of microphone, MP3 recorder, or way of recording your voice. Basic audio editing software (Audacity is a popular free one.Immersive games beats classroom in mathsWell designed studyThe tested a hypothesis; that interactive maths games are more effective than classroom instruction. This was a well constructed study; The Effects of Modern Math Computer Games on Learners' Math Achievement and Math Course Motivation in a Public High School Setting, MansurehKebritchi, Ph.D., AtsusiHirumi, Ph.D. and HaiyanBai, Ph.D. They took 193 algebra students, control groups and then did evaluation through pre- and post-study assessments, surveys, classroom observations and interviews. Over 18 weeks, on average, students in the experimental group made gains of 8.07 points (out of 25), while students in the control group made gains of 3.74 points.

Weird Wired ScienceAustrian physician Franz Joseph Gall sought to understand the mind of murderers and other criminals by feeling the outside of their skulls. This practice, which he first used in 1796, later came to be called Now largely discredited, it turned out that neither Gall nor anyone could systematically link the bumps and lumps on the head to any regular patterns of behavior, criminal or otherwise. Psychologists no longer need to use scalp massages as diagnostic tools.

Data scienceWe’ve all heard it: according to Hal Varian, statistics is the next sexy job. Five years ago, in What is Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly said that “data is the next Intel Inside.” But what does that statement mean?Subliminal MotivationPeople often do things and can’t say exactly why they did them. While it might seem that “acting without explanation” is the result of poor attention or irrational impulse, it turns out that our brains are wired to do this. It is possible, researchers at INSERM in Paris found, to motivate half the brain without the other half being aware of what’s going on. The INSERM researchers discovered this by measuring how hard subjects could squeeze a grip with each hand. Then, they showed the subjects a picture of a high value (one-euro) or low value (one-cent) coin.

Setting aside half the Earth for 'rewilding': the ethical dimensionA much-anticipated book in conservation and natural science circles is EO Wilson’s Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, which is due early next year. It builds on his proposal to set aside half the Earth for the preservation of biodiversity. The famous biologist and naturalist would do this by establishing huge biodiversity parks to protect, restore and connect habitats at a continental scale. Local people would be integrated into these parks as environmental educators, managers and rangers – a model drawn from existing large-scale conservation projects such as Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica.

Journalism Needs Data in 21st CenturyJournalism has always been about reporting facts and assertions and making sense of world affairs. No news there. But as we move further into the 21st century, we will have to increasingly rely on "data" to feed our stories, to the point that "data-driven reporting" becomes second nature to journalists. The shift from facts to data is subtle and makes perfect sense.The Death Delusion « KenshoBy Bard Canning “Afraid of dying? Don’t be. It’s never going to happen to you, and I can prove it.” It’s said that Albert Einstein once commented that the most fundamental question we can ever ask ourselves is whether or not the universe we live in is friendly or hostile. He hypothesized that your answer to that question would determine your destiny.

How to be a data journalistData journalism is huge. I don't mean 'huge' as in fashionable - although it has become that in recent months - but 'huge' as in 'incomprehensibly enormous'. It represents the convergence of a number of fields which are significant in their own right - from investigative research and statistics to design and programming.The Roots of Consciousness: Theory, The Biological PerspectiveThe Biological Perspective In the Introduction, I discussed the evolution of organized matter from the photon through particles, atoms and molecules to living cells which begin to differentiate in structure and function forming a wide variety of tissues and organs that play a specialized function in the human body. It is reasonable to assume all these levels of organization including the whole human being play a role in shaping consciousness. Particularly important are the nervous system, comprising brain and spinal cord, and the endocrine system, comprising a number of ductless glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Many biological scientists today implicitly believe that these structures not only shape consciousness, but are actually the source of conscious awareness.

Review of Galantamine: the Lucid Dreaming PillSo you’re considering the red pill… Galantamine has emerged as THE lucid dreaming pill. This natural supplement has been used for centuries in China as a memory enhancer, and was even noted by the ancient Greeks for its powerful mind-inducing effects. Now we know that galantamine indirectly promotes dreaming sleep as well as lucid dreaming, which is the art of becoming self-aware in your dreams.